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San Diego’s Republican consultant has ties to the cannabis industry

While political consulting guru Jason Roe worked to elect some of the most prominent Republicans in San Diego County and across the nation, his wife and consulting partner was venturing into the business of marijuana, anathema to many conservative politicians.

Patricia Roe, a minority owner of the campaign firm Revolvis Consulting until she resigned in December, was a founding officer at Luxe Management, a limited liability company established in August 2016. She also was involved in Luxe Holistics, incorporated a month earlier.

Both entities were set up to manage and operate a marijuana dispensary in Mission Valley, Patricia Roe said in an email, but the plan fizzled earlier this year when the pot entrepreneurs could not secure the property they identified for the business.

“I was a partner in Luxe Management, which was formed to seek a dispensary license,” she wrote. “Unfortunately, we were denied the parcel we needed to get a license and at that point I separated from Luxe effective April 2017.”

Two weeks later she launched Pink Haze, which markets pot-themed clothing, cellphone cases and other products.

“Puff, puff, pass, repeat,” is one of the company’s slogans.

The company’s website notes that “cannapreneur” Patricia Roe began meeting with her dispensary partners in early 2016, about a year before she left Revolvis.

Throughout that year, her political consulting business represented former Encinitas Mayor Kristin Gaspar in her successful run for the Board of Supervisors. Earlier this year, Gaspar was the swing vote on a 3-2 board decision to ban pot farms and dispensaries in San Diego County, where 57 percent of San Diego County voters supported the 2016 ballot measure to allow recreational use of the drug.

In a statement Thursday, Gaspar said she did not know a Revolvis partner was pursuing a dispensary at the same time the company advised her campaign.

“I was completely surprised to find out that Mrs. Roe had any connection to the marijuana industry,” the statement said. “I just learned about this in the last 24 hours. My longstanding views and public record on marijuana are well known. I hired this firm for campaign services, not policy advice.”

Marijuana has been legal in California for medical use since 1996 and was just approved for recreational purposes in November. Under federal law, marijuana is still illegal to grow, possess, transport or sell.

Last month, in an effort to better regulate how the dozen or so licensed dispensaries in San Diego can operate legally, the City Council voted 6-3 to approve rules governing the marijuana supply chain.